Cameron's Treasures
by ReaganCaseyFan
Summary: A short story examining the things Cameron holds dear besides her John and family. Humans have treasures, keepsakes and mementos that remind them of special memories or goals. Cameron, despite her blunt nature, is a private person. Like the human members of her family, Cameron has dreams and aspirations. This story takes a look at what the beautiful Terminator considers precious.
1. Chapter 1

**Cameron's Treasures – Part I**

 **Disclaimer:** Don't own TSCC

 _These stories are set in the timeline of my other TSCC stories and take place during_ _ **Cameron**_ _ **Grows Up**_ _,_ _ **The Future Cameron**_ _and_ _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ _. Characters from the original TSCC story arc and_ _ **Cameron Grows Up**_ _as well as_ _ **The Future Cameron**_ and _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ _appear in these stories._

 **Cameron's Treasures is set after** _ **Cameron versus the Queen**_ **and before** _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ **. Ruth and Hailey have just started middle school.**

 **The Wastelands – North of TechCom City…**

"I do not think it is wise for you to recon on your own."

"Wilhelm, I appreciate your concern. I operated on my own before you were assembled. I will be fine."

The Major stared at Cameron for a moment before replying.

"If something happens to you, the General will have me melted down."

"No he won't. John knows how stubborn I am. We will cover more territory this way. We cannot afford any more surprises from groups we know nothing about. Besides, Catherine's scroungers need new sources."

The huge T-800 shook his head in frustration. Lt. Dan smiled at the exchange, enjoying watching two equally stubborn Terminators disagree could be amusing. For a while. The human officer knew the two would go round in circles until something prompted Cameron to pull rank.

"Commander?"

Cameron broke her stare to look at the young officer.

"Should I order the scouts to pitch camp again?"

"Why?"

"If we are not going to depart now, the human personnel should take shelter from the cold and rain."

"Wilhelm?"

"Very well, Commander," the T-800 replied, focusing his frustration on his XO.

"We will meet at these coordinates in 96 hours."

Wilhelm and the Assassin both nodded in agreement, setting the time on their internal chronometers. The human officers present set their watches.

Within minutes the two other groups had vanished into the darkness of the Wastelands, leaving Cameron alone. Wilhelm and his squad of airborne troops headed to the Northwest, in the direction of the Northerner's kingdom. The Assassin and his small group of human scouts headed to the Northeast, in the direction of the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Cameron began walking due North.

 **TechCom City – The Connor Family Bunker…**

Being alone was not high on Hailey Connor's list of things to do. Being in her room alone was fine. Being home alone was not. Even her dogs were gone, spending the day at the TechCom vet facility. Ruth was at school. John, Derek and Sarah were on duty. The Old Man was in his alcove in the tunnel.

John had looked at Hailey funny when she complained of feeling achy that morning. She had not counted on his response. He'd stayed home while the Old Man took Ruth to school and then reported for duty. The Old Man was ordered to return home and maintain his vigil from his alcove. Agent Ellison would escort Ruth home from.

Boredom set in within ten minutes of her father leaving the bunker. Ruth was at school. The girl's dogs were at the vet. The Old Man was in his alcove and Hailey did not want to risk a scan from her T-600 protector.

"What good is it if Mom's away and I play hooky from school and there is nothing to do?" she muttered aloud in frustration to nobody. "Dad can't scan me. But do I get to do anything fun? Noooooo. It's not fair."

The absence of her mother's morning health scan had been the inspiration for Hailey's planned day of fun while ditching school. It never occurred to Hailey John was a past master of skipping school and all manner of methods kids used to avoid school.

Hailey stared at the walls of the bunker for a good half hour. Every time Hailey checked the digital clock her mother kept in the dining area for the benefit of John and Hailey, it seemed the clock was standing still.

"I have to find something to do," she moaned. Thirty minutes later Hailey had finished cleaning and organizing her room, a task she avoided as often as possible. Another half hour passed and the entire bunker had been swept and vacuumed.

All except for her parent's bedroom.

It took her five minutes of staring at the door of her parent's room before Hailey worked up the courage to enter.

She'd been in their room more times than she could remember, but always with permission or when one of her parents was present. Hailey stood in the doorway and looked at the unmade bed.

"Mom would skin you Dad," Hailey said smiling at the secret knowledge that her father liked to slack off too when Cameron was gone. It took less than ten minutes to sweep and vacuum the room. Hailey decided to wash the dirty clothes, a task she hated and had recently been assigned by her mother.

A quick sort of her parents laundry and her own and Hailey had the first load of clothes running in the old, beat up washer. Cameron had repaired and modified the machine that now operated better than when first manufactured. Hailey held up a pair of her mother's purple lace panties, holding the garment between her thumb and forefinger and shook her head in disgust. Hailey dropped the panties in the laundry bag her mother used for "delicates" and fished through the dirty clothes for more of the same.

Finding several more pairs of lace panties and matching bras, Hailey tossed them in the bag, zipped it up and shook her head in disgust while making a face. It was bad enough realizing her parents had sex, but so long as it was an abstract concept and she didn't think about it, the idea didn't bother Hailey.

Finding evidence of her mother's tools to seduce her father was a hideous reminder to Hailey of what went on with her a mere dozen feet away in her room. "At least I'm safe in my room," she muttered, dropping the bag on top of the sorted dirty clothes.

Returning to the bedroom, Hailey looked about for anything else to do. She decided to try to earn brownie points with John so she could con her way to freedom when he got home, claiming she felt fine. She could truthfully claim she was so bored she cleaned the bunker.

Making the Queen-sized bed was a bit of a struggle for Hailey. Getting the sheets pulled tight and smooth required going from side to side as did the blankets. As she pulled the heavy comforter over the blankets, Hailey's toe struck an object under the bed on Cameron's side. She finished making the bed and raised the comforter, taking a peak underneath.

Spotting an old, battered cigar box, Hailey fished it out. Carrying it out to the dining area, she sat down at the family table, setting the box down in front of her. While tattered and scratched, the box was completely clean. As if someone took the trouble to wipe it off on a regular basis.

"What have we here," Hailey whispered.

 **The Wastelands North of TechCom City…**

Cameron enjoyed traveling by herself, covering the miles rapidly. Initially not desirous to leave her John alone, he'd convinced her it would be safer for him and all of TechCom in the long run if she went on the scouting patrol. Now that she was alone and moving quickly through the unexplored Wastelands, Cameron was enjoying herself. Pausing to record map coordinates for her report, Cameron reviewed the file on the conversation with her John.

"Information is a weapon. You know that Cameron. You're the best infiltrator I have. Wilhelm and the Assassin can only cover so much ground, even with their human scouts. We have got to have a better idea of what is out there."

"I won't be here to protect you," she protested.

"Cameron, we're not in a shooting war right now. Nor do I want to be surprised by another group out there somewhere and wind up in one. We know there are more Skynet regions. Suppose there are more city-states like the Northerner Kingdom?"

"I won't be here to protect you," she repeated.

"Catherine's scroungers need new territory. Every week we have more Tunnel Rats seeking sanctuary. John Henry is always needing this or that for some project."

Her next protest had been silent. Cameron had simply glared at her husband.

"That won't work," he replied, smiling. "Besides, the Old Man will keep an eye on me. If it would make you feel better, Hailey can sleep over with Ruth and I'll crash in Mom and Derek's bunker."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Staring out into the devastation that had been a forest, Cameron had her doubts that John would actually sleep in his mother's bunker. Hailey would be happy to sleep over with Ruth's. The Old Man had promised he would keep an eye on the General. It was a promise Cameron intended to hold him to.

As she covered more ground, Cameron began to notice signs of plant life. Not much, but some, lichen and a few scattered weeds among the decaying logs of the destroyed forest. Scanning the area around her, Cameron discovered the range of light penetrating the thick cloud cover was broader than what was normal further south. She noted the atmosphere contained less particulate, allowing more of the sun's light to find a way through the clouds, even if it wasn't in the visible spectrum.

This was an important discovery. John Henry would send some of his scientists as soon as possible after she reported her find. Stopping to conduct another scan to collect data, Cameron noticed the dead forest would make an excellent background for one of the terrible, low budget horror films her John loved to make her watch with him. As she viewed the forest with her infrared night vision, Cameron found herself a little creeped out by the forest.

Annoyed, Cameron shrugged off the strange sensation. _Terminators do not fear imaginary creatures or imagined haunted forests_ , she told herself. _You just miss your John, your family. That's all it is._

With increased speed, Cameron left the area, moving further north. Cresting a ridge, she spotted a two-lane road in the distance. Adjusting her path slightly, Cameron traveled in the direction of the road. Within minutes she reached the cracked asphalt and stopped to scan the area for threats.

After noting the coordinates for future explorers from TechCom, Cameron took advantage of the road and began jogging to the north. After an hour of constant jogging, the road broadened into a divided boulevard, indicating a populated area was nearby. Cameron slowed to a walk, scanning the area for signs of human or machine life.

Buildings began to appear as she continued her approach. Some were burned out shells and other's looked undamaged. Some looked worse for the wear as she traveled, the result of no maintenance having been done since Judgment Day. The buildings grew closer and closer as she traveled. Apartments and entrances to neighborhoods began to crop up, indicating she was approaching a town of some size.

Cameron decided to stop for a period of time. She'd promised John to engage in some form of modified maintenance mode while gone and the discovery of the town would provide cover. Stopping would also allow her to hide and listen and scan for movement around her location. Picking an abandoned house on top of a hillside, Cameron entered through a broken window. A quick search assured her the house had been empty for years and nobody had entered for most of that time.

Taking up position in the shadows of the living room while facing the front entranceway, Cameron adjusted her sensors to record while she shut down for maintenance. She adjusted her protocols for alerting her to possible danger to more sensitive levels and began the shutdown process.

Her last thought had been to view a digital image of John holding Hailey in his lap.

 **TechCom City – The Connor Family Bunker…**

It had taken her nearly ten minutes to work up the nerve, but Hailey finally opened the box. It did not contain much.

Sitting in the box were three tiny black boxes covered in a smooth, black material Hailey believed was called velvet. Removing each of the boxes one at a time, Hailey first shook each box, listening for any sound, setting each box on the table after she did so.

Failing to hear anything, Hailey decided to sniff each of the boxes. With still no idea of what the boxes contained, her curiosity got the better of her. Hailey opened the first of the boxes. It contained a simple, slender gold ring. It took a moment for Hailey to recognize it.

"Mom's wedding band," she whispered, closing the box. Hurriedly, Hailey opened the next one, discovering her mother's purple amethyst earrings. Pausing a moment, Hailey starred at the final unopened box before lifting its top half.

"Mom's engagement ring."

Hailey carefully slipped the ring from its protective box and carefully put it on her own left ring finger. Too big to fit properly, the weight of the ring's stone caused it to turn upside down, hiding the gem from sight.

Turing the ring back around, Hailey closed her fingers, preventing the ring from moving. Holding her hand up in the light, Hailey looked at the ring, noticing the way the purple diamond shown in the light. Guilt ran through Hailey and she quickly removed the ring, returning it to the safety of its box. Closing all three of the boxes, Hailey set them in a row and looked at them.

"Mom's treasures," she said to herself.

Lifting the lid to the box a second time, Hailey looked to see what other treasures her mother kept hidden away.

 **The Wastelands…**

Two hours passed and Cameron's internal chronometer woke her. She spent fifteen minutes exploring the abandoned house. Finding no signs of violence or human remains, Cameron wondered why the house was abandoned. Signs of occasional visitors were evident. The kitchen pantry had been open and still contained canned food though it was obvious the visitors had helped themselves.

Examination of three nearby houses led Cameron to conclude the residents had simply left. The small town was far enough from a major city to have escaped the blast of the nuclear bombs. Puzzled by the absence of destruction and human remains, Cameron returned to the two-lane road and continued north. The forest surrounding the road and small community still stood, consisting of dead trees, long stripped of their leaves by the perpetual darkness.

Cameron spent her afternoon searching the small shops on Main Street. Noting the exact GPS coordinates for Catherine's scavengers who would strip the town like locusts, she continued to move north, still puzzled by the absence of signs of death or fighting against Skynet forces. Satisfied with the find of the town and the wealth of items it would provide TechCom, Cameron continued to make her way north, leaving the small town on the same road.

Roadside advertising billboards announced the opening of a new split-level shopping mall just a few miles away. Cameron decided she would journey to the mall and go no further north. Two huge finds like this were plenty for her patrol north. Deciding to investigate the mall and perform a quick inventory of the types of stores and if any goods remained would allow Cameron more time to explore the area before having to turn back south for the rendezvous.

The parking lot of the mall was filled with only a few cars, most still locked and undamaged as if waiting for their owners to return from shopping. Cameron spent a few minutes filming all of the vehicles and inventorying them for John Henry. His engineers would certainly want to retrieve or strip the cars for everything useful.

Cameron approached the main entrance, noting the glass doors were shut and undamaged save for a single door with shattered glass. There were no signs of blood on the glass or any hint of violence other than the force used to gain entrance to the building.

It took nearly two hours for Cameron to conduct her quick survey of the abandoned retail structure. She stopped only long enough to lay claim too much needed clothes for Hailey and Ruth. A quick stop at the Victoria's Secret store let Cameron grab a few surprises for John and Derek as she snagged items in her and Sarah's size.

Stopping near the entrance to force her way into a final store, Cameron realized the store sold collectibles and antiques, nothing that would help her family or TechCom immediately. Turning to depart and begin her return, Cameron noticed an old poster advertising a performance of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet Company.

She stood and stared at the old poster, tilting her head, scanning it in a variety of light spectrums.

"It wouldn't hurt anything," Cameron whispered to her self. "It is a proper treasure. Mary and Grace would like to see it. So would Catherine."

Convinced taking the old poster would not harm anything, Cameron forced the security shield up and quickly broke the lock on the entrance. She collected the poster and several like it of famous Russian dancers. A quick search found a cardboard tube designed to mail posters and photos. The posters were carefully rolled up and placed in the tube for safekeeping.

Turning to depart, Cameron's eye caught another poster of a ballet dancer. Stunned, she stared at the image with her mouth open. This time, she removed the poster with even greater care and sealed it up in another tube. With a sense of urgency, Cameron secured the door and pulled the security gate back down in an effort to make the store appear to be secure against entry.

 **The Connor Family Bunker…**

Hailey turned Cameron's box upside down and gave it a good shake. Out fell several carefully folded pieces of thick paper of the type posters were printed on. With great care, Hailey opened each of the posters. The first poster was a black and white print of a ballerina. Printed beneath the image was the ballerina's name, Anna Pavlova.

Unimpressed, Hailey shrugged and carefully folded the poster back up, moving on to the second folded piece of paper. Like the first, it was a black and white image of a ballerina. Tamara Karsavina was printed beneath the image just as in the first poster. Wondering what her mother saw in these two prints, Hailey carefully folded the second poster up, placing it on top of the first she had examined.

Hopeful the final poster, if that was indeed what it was, would be a little more interesting, Hailey carefully unfolded it and turned it over. Her pulse quickened and she covered her mouth with her hand as she gasped in surprise.

Reviews are always appreciated. If you liked this story, you might want to consider my other TSCC stories:

 _ **Cameron Grows Up**_

 _ **The Future Cameron**_

 _ **Cameron versus the Queen**_

 _ **Cameron's Revenge**_

 _ **Cameron and the Black Bird**_

 _ **Cameron and John's Wedding**_

 _ **Who's the Boss?**_

 _ **The Storm Before the Calm**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Cameron's Treasures – Part II**

 **Disclaimer:** Don't own TSCC

 _These stories are set in the timeline of my other TSCC stories and take place during_ _ **Cameron**_ _ **Grows Up**_ _,_ _ **The Future Cameron**_ _and_ _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ _. Characters from the original TSCC story arc and_ _ **Cameron Grows Up**_ _as well as_ _ **The Future Cameron**_ and _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ _appear in these stories._

 **Cameron's Treasures is set after** _ **Cameron versus the Queen**_ **and before** _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ **. Ruth and Hailey have just started middle school.**

 **The Wastelands…**

Eager to return to TechCom with the news of her find, Cameron hurried from the parking lot of the mall towards the country road leading to the mall. An open field promised a short cut to the road. Cameron hopped the fence and made her way diagonally across the field. She stopped after no more than twenty steps.

Dropping down in a crouch, Cameron scanned the immediate area for threats, finding none. With her fingers, she carefully spread the dirt by her feet, removing tiny amounts and setting the dirt aside. Within minutes her fingers touched what Cameron feared she would find.

Carefully extracting the small object, Cameron did a complete scan, identifying the objects properties while at the same time collecting measurements and recording images. Respectfully, Cameron sat the object aside and continued her careful combing of the dirt. Finding a larger object, Cameron repeated the process of scanning and recording data.

Examining the ground before each step, Cameron moved to the center of the field and repeated the process. Again she found objects and scanned them, recording her findings. Finished with the second set of objects, Cameron quickly traveled the rest of the distance across the field to the road and climbed the fence.

Dropping into the ditch next to the road, Cameron carefully scanned the area for threats. Finding none she climbed from the ditch and began running down the road from the mall. She planned to be waiting for Wilhelm and The Assassin's patrols at the rendezvous.

The field held the answer to the question of where the people of the town had gone. Cameron had stumbled into a mass grave.

 **The Connor Family Bunker…**

"Hey bestie! How did playing hooky go today?"

"Ruth! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Hailey hissed. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"No I didn't," Ruth giggled. "At least it doesn't smell like I did."

Hailey rolled her eyes and contorted her face in disgust, making Ruth giggle even harder.

"Keep it down. I've got to get this put up before somebody else comes in. What are you doing home so early anyhow?"

"Lunch time. I always spend it with you, so I slipped away to see what you were up to."

Spotting the poster on the table, Ruth leaned closer to examine it.

"That's…."

"Yeah, it is. And if I don't get all of this back in the box and back where I found it I'm in huge trouble."

"You didn't!"

"You would have looked too and you know it, Ruth Reese."

"Those are Cameron's treasures!"

"No kidding. Now help me fold this up."

"You know how psycho Cameron is about her treasures. My dad told me to never touch them unless I wanted to be terminated. He should know too. Dad can make Cameron mad quicker than anybody and that includes you Hailey."

For the second time in less than a minute Hailey rolled her eyes at Ruth.

"I know that, now will you help me?"

Ruth carefully folded the poster and with Hailey's guidance replaced the treasures in the box. Hailey grabbed the box and hurried to her parent's room. Quickly she hid the box under her parent's bed, retrieving the vacuum cleaner and hurrying into the family's eating area. She stored the vacuum and let out a big sigh.

"I'm hungry now. Do you have time to stay Ruth?"

 **The Wastelands…**

An examination of her previous route to the mall indicated to Cameron the road wound around a large hill. By climbing the hill she could cut nearly a mile off her journey back to the town. She dodged the dead trees, weaving around rocks and other obstacles on the hillside. Reaching the top, Cameron stopped and knelt behind a large trunk of a fallen tree.

Scanning the area for threats, Cameron found one.

Following her down the road was a group of humans, seven in number. They stopped at the point she'd left the road and begun her climb up the hill. One of the humans examined the area, finally pointing at the route she had taken.

A tracker. The first of the humans she would terminate.

Another of the humans gathered the other six around and gave instructions. The leader Cameron thought to herself, marking the human for termination after the tracker. Spreading out in a firing line, the seven humans began making their way to the top of the hill. The path they chose led directly to the spot Cameron was observing from.

Adjusting her optics, Cameron zoomed in for a closer view of her prey, recording their silent approach as she did so. Despite her years of witnessing the horrors of war, Cameron was not prepared for what she recorded.

Their bodies were covered in dried mud, masking some of their body heat and providing camouflage that would have been effective in evading detection by humans. Each wore a loincloth made of what looked like leather. Two of the humans wore roughly fashioned tops, supporting and covering breasts. Females.

The trackers wore boots of a sort that came up to mid-shin. Their hair was long, fashioned into filthy dreadlocks, covered in mud like their bodies. All of the humans carried machetes. Three were armed with AK-47. The remaining four carried compound hunting bows and quivers.

What disturbed Cameron were their faces. Lengths of bones from human fingers had been used to pierce the cartilage of their nose and the flesh of their lower lips.

Cannibals.

The decision of termination or evasion was made in that instant. Cameron would eliminate the threat against her family before continuing her journey south.

Reaching into the inside pocket of her jacket, Cameron removed a throwing dagger. Placing it tip first into the soil at her feet, Cameron withdrew her two Glock-17s and checked each. She returned one Glock to its holster on her right hip. She waited patiently as the group continued their advance.

The tracker stopped and raised her hand, signaling to the others to pause. Cameron watched as the woman sniffed the air, as if puzzled by the lack of a strong scent. The tracker continued to sniff as the other's waited patiently, clearly used to the tracker's methods.

Suddenly, the tracker looked directly in Cameron's direction. She hadn't spotted Cameron, but had determined the area of her scent.

Cameron didn't wait. She pulled her throwing blade from the ground and hurled it with deadly accuracy at the tracker. The tip of the blade penetrated the tracker's throat below her Adam's apple, striking with such force the tip of the blade pierced the back of her neck, having just missed the spinal vertebrae. Without thinking the tracker yanked the blade from her throat, allowing blood to pour from the two wounds, drenching her chest while dribbling down her back.

The tracker glanced at the weapon in her hand for a brief second before dropping to her knees, letting out a loud gurgling gasp. The woman dropped the blade and clutched her throat with both hands in an effort to stem the flow of life giving blood. To Cameron's horror, the other's watched intently at the dying woman, no doubt anticipating a future meal.

Her attack had taken mere seconds from start to finish. In the same amount of time, the Cannibals reacted to attack Cameron. The leader motioned for the others to move forward in an effort to envelope Cameron. A single round from her Glock stopped the leader dead in his tracks, blood trickling from the single round hole in the center of his forehead. Dropping his AK-47, he fell first to his knees and then forward on his chest.

Screaming in fury the other's attacked. AK-47 rounds whizzed past Cameron, the flash of the gunfire locating the position of the gunmen. Firing simultaneously, Cameron took down the two gunmen, one on each side of her. The remaining three bowmen did not break off their attack, merely stopping their advance.

The closest of the three loosed an arrow, striking Cameron in her left shoulder. Cameron snapped the shaft, dropping her Glock. The arrowhead had damaged something in her shoulder, rendering her left arm useless. Another arrow struck Cameron in her exposed right side, midway down her rib cage.

Cameron fired and killed the bowman to her right, striking the archer in the left eye with her bullet. Moving to evade further hits from the archers, Cameron hurried to her right, hoping to slip around the two remaining cannibals. Vanishing from sight, she slowed in an effort to not make sound.

Watching the two cannibals approach slowly towards her last known location, Cameron watched as one stooped and touched the ground, lifting her fingers up and smelling them. The two cannibals nodded to each other. They knew she had been wounded.

Cameron holstered her Glock. She would finish these monsters up close and personally. Reaching to her boot, Cameron withdrew her combat knife. Watching the two cannibals as they moved slowly in the direction Cameron had gone, she ran a diagnostic to determine the cause of the problem with her left arm.

Detecting a short caused by the steel arrowhead lodged in her shoulder, Cameron jammed her right index finger deep into the wound, driving the offending piece of steel deeper into her shoulder. Within seconds, the short having been eliminated, feeling and control came back to her left arm.

As she reached for the combat knife in her left boot and picked up the one from her right boot, Cameron noticed the two archers sniffing. Within seconds they spotted her location. She noted to herself, her synthetic blood must have a detectable scent like normal human blood.

The male was a large one and aggressive, charging forward while drawing his bow. Cameron moved to her left in a straight line, away from the spot the male charged headlong towards. She hid behind a dead tree and squatted, waiting.

The archer ran past, not spotting Cameron until it was too late. Nor did he spot her boot protruding from behind the tree, tripping him. Cameron lunged at the fallen cannibal, making a single, deep slash on the inside of his left thigh, severing his femoral artery cleanly.

She continued moving to the right, leaving the cannibal to bleed out, his death certain. His screams warned off the female who had been following. Cameron watched as the woman stopped and sniffed the air.

Without warning, the woman loosed an air in Cameron's direction, followed quickly by several more. All of them missed but each air had been closer than the one before. Cameron moved up the hill, circling the cannibal. The cannibal reached the spot where Cameron had been standing when the arrows had barely missed. With an arrow notched, the woman scanned the area slowly, searching for any sign of Cameron. Seeing nothing, the woman looked up, directly at Cameron.

The sound of Cameron's shot from her Glock was deafening, splintering the deadly silence shrouding the location of the deadly engagement. Striking the fingers of the woman's left hand, those holding the bow, the bullet severed the tips, causing the bow to fly from the cannibals grasp.

Snarling in agony, the woman drew her machete and lunged for Cameron, swinging the blade at Cameron's neck. Blocking the thrust with ease, Cameron jabbed the tip of the barrel of her Glock into the woman's chest, just above her sternum, stunning the cannibal and pushing her over.

Lying on her back, the female cannibal looked up in time to see Cameron stomp on her right wrist, shattering it while pinning her arm down. The blank expression on Cameron's face terrified the cannibal.

"You, you can't be human," the cannibal spoke. Blood dribbled steadily from Cameron's shoulder wound. Even more blood leaked from the air protruding from her rib cage.

"Some have said that about me," Cameron said softly, without emotion.

"Your blood, it smells different," the cannibal offered for no reason it could understand.

"Why do you do this?" Cameron asked.

"Do what? Survive," the cannibal retorted in fear. "Everyone does what is necessary to survive."

"So you killed the people of the town?"

"They were weak. We were strong. It was easy," the cannibal told Cameron. "There were twenty of us. We raided the gun store. The townspeople were so scared. We told them we'd lead them to safety, food, better shelter."

"You massacred them in the field. You didn't even give them a proper burial."

The cannibal laughed crazily, watching Cameron stare at her.

"Hard to after you clean the meat off. There are several huge freezers in the restaurants in the mall. Once you get a taste for it, human…"

For a second time Cameron's Glock shattered the eerie silence of the hilltop.

"There were 20," Cameron noted. The Assassin would be sent back with one of his elite teams. Then there would be none.

A quick search of the hilltop produced the two cardboard tubes and her dropped Glock. Cameron finally found her throwing dagger. Pausing long enough to bandage her wounds to stop the bleeding, Cameron gathered her weapons and tubes and departed, hurrying back to the rendezvous point.

 **The Connor Family Bunker…**

"Hailey!"

The sound of John's voice woke Hailey from her nap. She hopped from her bed and stuck her head out the door of her room.

"Dad?"

"How's my little faker feeling?"

"Dad!"

"Hope you enjoyed your day off from school, because if your mother was here, you'd never have gotten away with it."

Hailey stood looking at John with her mouth wide open. "How did you know?"

"You're too predictable. The third day your mother is on patrol and you act sick? Come on. Wait till the day she gets home! I'm tired and less likely to examine you as closely."

"Dad…"

"Dogs are at the vet for their checkups. You're free to roam."

John smiled at his daughter. "Of course, you forgot your mom is a bit paranoid and left audio bugs in the bunker."

"That's not fair!"

"Of course it is," John laughed. "Thanks for cleaning the bunker by the way. I hate the sound of that vacuum cleaner."

Appalled she had been caught so easily, Hailey folded her arms and pouted, only making her father laugh even harder. "You are so your mother's daughter," he chuckled, motioning for Hailey to come to him.

He hugged his daughter and kissed Hailey on her head. Without warning, John delivered a hard swat across her bottom, causing Hailey to take two large steps backwards.

Rubbing her bottom, Hailey did her best imitation of her mother's Terminator Death Glare. "What was that for?" she shouted at John as tears ran from her eyes.

"That was for violating your mother's privacy. I have her permission to enter her treasures box and rarely do so."

"What's the big deal?" Hailey whined. "It had her jewelry and some posters."

"You missed a few other things, but yes, it doesn't contain much."

"You're mean," a tearful Hailey yelled.

"No, you had it coming. You've been told not to open that box."

Hailey wrapped her arms around her chest as she cried, feeling conflicted between the anger at her father for punishing her and the guilt she didn't understand at being caught.

Seeing his daughter's confusion, John sat down in one of the chairs at their table. He patted his lap, indicating Hailey should come to him. Giving her father an evil eye, and with one hand covering her bottom in a proactive preventative measure, Hailey climbed into John's lap.

"Trust is something precious. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Dad."

"You broke your mother's trust, do you understand?"

Hailey nodded, tears running down her cheeks.

"When Cameron gets home you will confess immediately."

"Dad, she won't know. Why do I have to tell?"

John tilted his head while raising his eyebrows. "Your mother won't know?"

Hailey considered the question for a moment and sighed. "She would notice the box was in a slightly different position and the contents were not exactly as she left them."

"Correct. Then the witch-hunt would commence. The most likely suspect would be?"

"Derek, but he doesn't mess with mom like that anymore."

"That leaves?"

"You, but you don't mess with mom's treasures except to make her wear her wedding rings."

"So the culprit is?"

"Me?"

John frowned at Hailey, confirming the obvious.

"So I need to confess?"

"What do you think?"

"I would prefer Mom to figure it out on her own."

"And what would that do to the process of restoring the trust you've broken?"

Hailey considered her father's question for a moment. "Make things better?" she said hopefully.

"Really?"

"No, it would make it worse," Hailey muttered with guilt.

 **The Rendezvous Point…**

Wilhelm found Cameron first. She'd arrived early and entered standby. Approaching his commanding officer and friend cautiously, Wilhelm noted the blood stains on her jacket and the left arm lying at an odd angle. Taking a small rock, he motioned for his unit to move back as he tossed the rock. Landing on Cameron's chest, it started the reboot process.

Cameron rebooted faster than most Terminators, one of the differences built into her design as a TOK-715. Sitting bolt upright, Cameron quickly focused on Wilhelm.

"Major, is the Assassin's unit here?"

"No. You have been seriously damaged," Wilhelm replied. "I detect serious blood loss and damage to the sensory and motor control systems of your left arm. I am calling for an air medevac for you."

"Nonsense," Cameron snapped. "I made it here, I can make it back to TechCom."

Wilhelm stepped further away from Cameron as he depressed the button on his radio.

"Big Boss to Papa Boss. Big Boss to Papa Boss. Come in."

"Papa Boss to Big Boss. Read you loud and clear."

"Need air medevac at these coordinates…"

 **TechCom Medical…**

John watched as Savannah finished suturing the incision in Cameron's left shoulder. He didn't know whether to be furious with Cameron or cry with relief. His wife sat stoically, ignoring him as Savannah finished her needlework.

Pulling the last suture tight, Savannah trimmed the thread and quickly cleaned up the tools of her work. Standing, she gave Cameron a stern look.

"You are not the newly built Terminator you think you are," Savannah admonished. "You did considerable damage to your shoulder by pushing the arrowhead in deeper."

"It was necessary to reactivate my arm for combat," Cameron monotoned.

Savannah shook her head. There was no use arguing with Cameron. "Your body does not replace your blood loss as quickly as it used to. You did not consume sufficient protein and fluid in advance of the patrol or while on patrol. You cannot do that. Your flesh takes longer to regenerate. As much damage as you've done to your flesh, it was inevitable. That means blood loss is more serious."

Cameron looked at Savannah with her blank expression. "I have so noted your instructions. New protocols concerning ingesting the necessary items prior to potential combat situations have been noted. It won't happen again."

"How do you put up with her?" Savannah asked John, shaking her head in exasperation. "You can sterilize her wounds. The Assassin has a T-600 with damaged foot components I have to examine."

John watched Savannah leave, hurrying towards another examining area where The Assassin waited patiently with a T-600 sitting on the examining table, his right foot badly mangled.

Drawing the curtain closed, John helped Cameron take off the paper hospital gown. He wadded up the ruined paper garment, tinged with blood from her shoulder. Frowning at Cameron as she sat in nothing more than her panties, John picked up a cotton patch with a pair of tweezers. He poured antiseptic on the cotton and began daubing it on the freshly sutured wound on Cameron's rib cage, right where her bra would normally cover her ribs.

She smiled weakly at her John. "I won't be able to wear a bra for a few days."

"Not going to get you off the hook," he replied sternly. "Seven? I know they were humans, but those are not odds I like, even for you."

"John, you don't understand, they had to be terminated."

"Cameron, this is not like you. You never stop and fight in these situations unless forced to. You weren't forced to."

"They were monsters John. I will not allow monsters like this to live. Not this close to TechCom."

"Close? More like a couple of hundred kilometers away to the north!"

"They were cannibals John. I found a mass grave."

John finished cleaning his wife's first wound in silence. Taking a second cotton swab, he repeated the process of cleaning the incision resulting from her shoulder surgery.

He finished his work and took Cameron in his arms, saying nothing. Cameron might be a Terminator, but there were horrors even she could not stomach.

"You did the right thing. I just hate that you had to be the one to do it."

"John, they were worse than something Skynet would have created. They had to be terminated."

Cameron looked up at her husband. "Before I terminated the last female, she told me they liked the taste of human flesh."

Reviews are always appreciated. If you liked this story, you might want to consider my other TSCC stories:

 _ **Cameron's Expedition**_

 _ **Cameron Grows Up**_

 _ **The Future Cameron**_

 _ **Cameron versus the Queen**_

 _ **Cameron's Fights: Past and Present – a Collection of Short Stories**_

 _ **Cameron's Revenge**_

 _ **Cameron and the Black Bird**_

 _ **Cameron and John's Wedding**_

 _ **Who's the Boss?**_

 _ **The Storm Before the Calm**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Cameron's Treasures – Part III**

 **Disclaimer:** Don't own TSCC

 _These stories are set in the timeline of my other TSCC stories and take place during_ _ **Cameron**_ _ **Grows Up**_ _,_ _ **The Future Cameron**_ _and_ _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ _. Characters from the original TSCC story arc and_ _ **Cameron Grows Up**_ _as well as_ _ **The Future Cameron**_ and _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ _appear in these stories._

 **Cameron's Treasures is set after** _ **Cameron versus the Queen**_ **and before** _ **Cameron's Revenge**_ **. Ruth and Hailey have just started middle school.**

 **The Connor Family Bunker…**

Hailey sat quietly at the dinner table while John ate. Her mother sat silently, having eaten a helping of rat jerky and several glasses of water. Cameron's left arm was in a sling to immobilize her damaged left shoulder joint. Growing weary of watching Hailey play with her food, John cleared his throat and stared at his daughter.

"Stop playing with your food. There are Tunnel Rats somewhere in the Wastelands who would be happy to eat that."

Hailey responded with her typical rolling of the eyes that did nothing to help her cause.

"Do you have something you want to tell you mother?"

Dread seemed to press Hailey down, making her shrink in the chair.

"Do I have to?"

John frowned in response, increasing Hailey's sense of doom. "What did we talk about?"

Hailey swallowed and decided to face the inevitable.

"Mom."

"Yes."

"I did something wrong while you were on patrol."

Cameron said nothing. She sat and waited in silence, increasing Hailey's sense of doom.

"I looked in your box of Treasures."

Cameron sat back in her chair, tilting her head. She opened her mouth to speak and stopped, blinking several times. The act, most unlike anything her mother would normally do, frightened Hailey more than if Cameron had yelled at her.

Making matters worse, Cameron looked at John, as if somehow he would have an answer that would make things better. Hailey watched as her father reached his arm out to Cameron and gently pulled her to him, consoling her in the process.

"I'm sorry Mom. It was a really thoughtless, stupid thing to do. I'll never do it again. I promise."

"Hailey," Cameron replied softly, not looking at her daughter. "Please go to your room and stay there."

 **TechCom Central Command…**

Derek, Sarah and The Assassin huddled over the map table.

Standing up straight to rub his sore back, Derek asked, "Do you have any final questions?"

The Assassin straightened up and shook his head no.

"Additional intel on the mall and town would be good, but is secondary in importance to locating the cannibals and terminating them," Sarah ordered. "Get in, get the recon done, find the target, eliminate it and call for pick up."

"Understood," was The Assassin's reply.

"I take it you have already picked your squad?" Derek asked.

"The usual. Three Terminators, five humans and my two human scouts. Wilhelm will have a platoon ready for rapid airborne deployment if we need assistance but I doubt it will be necessary. The General made it clear. Do not attract attention to the resources available or ourselves."

"Do not hesitate to contact us for anything," Sarah reminded the T-600. "We need those resources and we need to eliminate the threat. Once their food supply is gone, they'll move."

The Assassin came to attention, saluted Derek and Sarah and departed without another word.

Sarah waited till the metal soldier was gone before hugging her husband. "How horrible for Cameron. I don't care if Tin Miss is a Terminator, what a horrible thing to stumble upon."

"It'll be okay. We sent the right soldier for the job. He might be a stone cold killer, but he never kills without purpose, to protect TechCom. The Assassin was disgusted when he read Cameron's after action report. Especially with food supplies in the area being untouched. There was just no reason for this. None. It's evil, Sarah. Evil."

 **The Connor Family Bunker…**

With eyes sore from crying and a nose swollen from the rubbing that accompanies a good sob session, Hailey found herself waiting in her pajamas. Waiting for the inevitable meeting of doom with her parents that would seal her fate.

John's booming General's voice summoned her, "Hailey, please come out of your room."

Unsure of what to expect, Hailey slowly peeked out of her room. Finding only her father waiting for her at the dinner table, Hailey tentatively took a step beyond the safety of her door.

"Your mother's in bed."

"Is she mad?"

"She's upset."

"There's a difference?"

"Very much so."

John sat in silence, his stare focused on Hailey. With no reason to return to her room, Hailey stood in silence withering in her father's glare. A soft whine from her dog Sammy, softened the tension. Sensing Hailey's despondency, Sammy licked her fingers and wagged his tail in an effort to cheer up his young master.

"Your mother wants to talk to you," John said firmly, making it clear Hailey could not squirm her way out of the situation.

"In y'all's room?"

"Yes.

Summoning what remained of her courage, Hailey stood up straight and like a good soldier, marched to meet her fate. Upon entering her parent's room, Hailey saw her mother sitting on the bed. Cameron wore only a loose fitting dress shirt she had long ago confiscated from John. Her left arm was still in a sling.

Hailey detected the strong smell of solvent. Cameron had just finished decorating her toenails with purple nail polish. Cotton balls were strategically placed between each of her toes to prevent an errant polish from coming in contact with her skin. Hailey looked at her mother's long, silky smooth legs and hoped she resembled Cameron when she became a grown woman.

"Mom? You wanted to talk to me?"

Cameron did not look at Hailey. She patted the bed next to her and proceeded to pull the puffy white balls of cotton from between her toes. Unsure of what to expect, Hailey walked around to John's side of the bed and climbed up on the mattress, taking a seat next to her mother.

Using a tone softer than her normal monotone, Cameron started speaking. "Hailey, I was hurt by your actions. I know you were just curious. I suffer the same affliction of curiosity often enough. You see, I have so little that is mine. My treasures are just that to me, my treasures. I trusted you not to come in my room when I am not home. I trusted you to not look in my treasures box."

"I'm so sorry," Hailey cried, unable to further bear the guilt of her poor choice. Cameron looked at her distraught daughter and made the decision to forgive Hailey and let the record of the crime be filed away deep in her hard drive.

"Can I trust you not to do this again," Cameron asked in a firm monotone.

"Yes, Mama, I can't stand the idea of you not being able to trust me about something this important."

Cameron wrapped her right arm around Hailey and pulled her child to her, letting Hailey cry the painful emotions out of her system. Hearing the sound of Hailey crying, John opened the door to the bedroom only to be shoed away by Cameron. Sammy slipped past John as he shut the door and scurried under the bed to be close to Hailey.

"It's okay Hailey. Just snuggle up to your mom. Now, I need to lie down because of my injuries. Your father and Savannah have made it clear I have to follow orders about this."

Cameron made herself comfortable, lying flat on her back. Hailey curled up next to her mother in the middle of her parent's bed, using Cameron's right shoulder as a pillow. Cameron hugged Hailey tight with her right arm and began running her fingers through Hailey's hair, soothing her distraught daughter. Within minutes Hailey fell asleep, emotionally drained.

 **The Wastelands – TechCom HK – The Assassin's Squad…**

Cold winds buffeted the converted Skynet HK, making the human occupants of the HK's bay uncomfortable despite being strapped down. The Terminators took the buffeting in stride but were hopeful the winds did not increase in velocity. Even metal soldiers could reach a point where turbulence was bothersome.

The Assassin waited patiently while the aircrew worked their way through a predetermined search grid over the map coordinates provided by Cameron. He spent the time during flight reviewing the post operation report from Cameron again. The navigator interrupted his concentration.

"Sir, picking up an infrared signature in the target zone. Appears to be about twenty or so humans and a fairly large fire. Located northeast of the coordinates for the mall location."

"Noted. Find a LZ for the drop. Get us as close as you can without alerting the targets."

Within minutes the jump master stood up, indicating it was time to line up and prepare to repel down. The Assassin led the way, hooking up first, followed by his handpicked squad. Cold air rushed into the bay as the jump master opened it. Mist from rain and strange smells filled the bay quickly as the cold air forced its way in, chilling the human soldiers. The jump lights cycled from red, to yellow and finally green in seconds and almost as quickly the Techcom unit deployed.

The jump master tossed the repelling rope out after the last of the soldiers and slammed the door shut, shaking the cold and wet from himself. Strapping himself back in his seat, the jump master was glad this was one mission he did not have to deploy on.

Within seconds of landing, the squad had collected the repelling rope, hidden it away and checked themselves for injuries or damage. The Assassin watched with pride as his squad silently formed up and readied to move out on his command. With a mere motion of his hand, The Assassin indicated the direction of the cannibals and moved silently to lead his troops toward their objective.

 **TechCom Central Command…**

"How's Cameron," Sarah asked as John entered the command center.

"Better. I think Savannah got a little over excited about Cameron's injuries, but I will never tell Cameron or Savannah," John answered as he tried to take in the real time data projected on the display from the two HK's in the attack zone.

"Yeah, no reason to ever tangle needlessly with a female and admit you're wrong," Derek whispered in John's ear, grinning as he did so.

"What's the situation?" John asked, becoming the General.

Derek stood up straight and began filling in the General. "Heat signatures indicating human presence and a fire have been located northeast of the grid coordinates for the mall that Cameron provided. The Assassin has landed his personnel and is approaching from the southwest. The recovery craft is airborne in the southeast along with an air-to-ground support HK. I doubt they'll need the air support, but as you ordered it's there."

"Wilhelm is on standby with a full platoon of airborne and two HKs in case The Assassin needs reinforcement. Wilhelm's forces are in a holding pattern five minutes away to lessen the likelihood of detection."

The General nodded, pleased things were going smoothly to this point.

"Let's just hope things don't go south on contact," he muttered.

"General, in just a moment we'll have live video footage. We've got the up-link now from the cameraman embedded."

The General acknowledged the technician's report with a silent nod of his head. In seconds the live video image was displayed next to the grid map with the infrared projections. The trio of commanders watched in real time as The Assassin led his unit in a silent approach.

Within seconds John realized the risks taken to mount the operation had been the correct decision.

 **The Wastelands – Northeast of the Mall…**

The Assassin paused for only a second, appalled at what he was witnessing. Despite the endless cruelty inflicted on humans by his builder and former master, The Assassin had never seen anything like what he was now witnessing. He raised his hand to signal his troops, directing them in how he wanted them to deploy for the ambush.

Before the squad was a clearing, a roaring fire burning in the middle. Securely tied to long cast iron fence poles were two adult women, an adult male and a teenage boy. The four had been beaten, their bodies covered in bruises and lacerations. On either end of the fire the cannibals had erected what could only be spits to rest the poles on.

To cook their victims.

The stench filling the air that had wafted into their aircraft was the smell of the cooking flesh of the victim roasting over the roaring fire.

Dancing around the fire in a frenzy was the remaining cannibals, oblivious to the silent approach of the TechCom unit. Their dreadlocks, decorated with bones, twirled in an eerie fashion, providing a nightmarish vision the human troops would never be able to unsee. Their bodies were covered in mud and clay of varying colors, their noses and lips pierced with the bones from human fingers, making the images even more evil and sinister as the colors merged into a blur as the monsters danced.

The Assassin holstered his pistol, drawing his combat knife instead. His troops immediately followed suit. This enemy did not deserve the clean death of gunshot wounds, three round bursts to center mass or a head-shot. Pausing at the edge of the clearing The Assassin signaled for one prisoner to be taken for interrogation.

Turning to face the scene from the inferno, The Assassin identified the alpha male, the chief monster. He burst from the cover of the darkness pressing against the light from the fire, starling the dancing monster of a leader. Driving forward, The Assassin knocked the chief down on his back. Straddling the frantic monster, The Assassin grabbed the filthy dreadlocks in order to hold the screaming cannibal's head still.

"What are you?" the cannibal screamed in anger, gnashing his teeth while clawing at the bare steel arms of the T-600. The evil in the monster's eyes reminded The Assassin of the same sensation he'd felt in the presence of the matrix eye of Skynet. The one time experience of meeting his creator had been enough to make the T-600 killing machine to turn his back on Skynet by choice.

"I'm the creature that's going to let you meet the devil sooner rather than later," The Assassin answered calmly. Without hesitation, the T-600 drove the tip of his combat knife through the left eye of the squirming, filthy monster below him. Giving the blade a twist to make certain the "chip was destroyed," be it a human or metal target, the Assassin finished the job.

Standing quickly over the dead, still body, The Assassin proudly took in the scene. In less than seven seconds his squad had finished off the entire group of cannibals save a lone female. Not a single shot had been fired.

He approached the terrified female and knelt down to examine her.

"Please, kill me," the young woman begged. "They forced me. They lost some of their number in a fight a day ago and they forced me. Please, don't let me live."

"Are you the only one remaining," The Assassin asked firmly.

"Yes. They were a family that lived in the hills over there," the terrified girl explained, pointing in the hills further to the northeast. "They were always getting arrested for poaching or something. When Judgment Day came they said they could help us and we trusted them. We thought they were survivalists or something like that."

The girl broke down in tears, sobbing uncontrollably. "We lived in what is left of the forest all that time. Hiding from them. They hunted everyone down. There were only two families left. They ate my family two days ago. Oh, God! They made me eat my own brother's flesh!"

The Assassin looked down on the broken girl. He motioned for her guards to step back. The sound of the action of his Browning made the girl look up. She stopped sobbing and smiled. "Thank you. May God forgive me for what I did. Thank you."

A single shot sang out followed by the sound of the girl's body falling to the ground.

"This scum does not deserve burial. Throw their bodies in the fire. Get the HK down immediately. I want the survivors medevac'd straight to the hospital. Tell Doctor Johnson this is a serious psych case. He'll want his T-600 orderlies to be there to handle the intake."

The Assassin's men nodded in agreement. They started the grisly task of burning the cannibal's bodies.

Stepping away from the light of the fire, The Assassin watched his troops carry out his orders. One of his T-800s and three humans began treating the traumatized prisoners, preparing them for evacuation. The others tossed the bodies into the fire, their body language communicating their disgust and hatred of the dead.

He stepped to the dead female who had begged for a merciful death.

"This one we bury," he ordered. His men nodded in agreement. Two of his Terminators removed trenching tools from their equipment and began digging a grave at the edge of the clearing.

His medic sedated the four survivors, allowing them to escape the horror of the moment. The Assassin and his men watched as the bodies of the cannibals twisted and contorted while burning in the intensely hot fire. Looking up at the burning victim's body, The Assassin knocked over the structure holding the iron spit, allowing the dead victim to burn into ash.

"Mark this place. It is evil," The Assassin ordered. "Nobody from TechCom should ever set foot on this land again."

As he watched his men, The Assassin made a note for his after action report. All of his squad would be required to visit Father Hidalgo for counseling, even his Terminators. He made another note to check with Savannah if the file of this raid could be deleted permanently from the hard drives of his Terminators. Asking was the least he could do for his soldiers.

 **TechCom Command Central…**

"My God," John whispered, shaking his head in disbelief. "The evil man is capable of."

Silence filled the command center as The Assassin shut down the video feed from the scene of the fight.

"I want that place marked as a no go zone," John ordered. "The Assassin is right. That place is evil."

"John, we need the supplies," Sarah reminded him.

"Fine," he snapped. "Wilhelm is to go in with two full companies of airborne and form a perimeter. Derek I want one of your soldiers to accompany each of Catherine's scavengers. Nobody opens a single freezer in that mall or any building or home in that town. Nobody. We going in, getting what we can, and getting out. Then we're going to burn it down from the sky."

 **The Connor Family Bunker…**

John announced his arrival at home. Cameron answered from their bedroom, telling him to not make so much noise.

For nearly half an hour John stood beneath the water in their tiny shower, trying to wash the images from his mind with water. He dried himself and pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

Quietly he entered his bedroom only to find the light on Cameron's bedside table on. A sleepy Hailey was sitting up in bed next to her mother, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Cameron questioned John with her eyes, asking if the raid had been a success. He nodded affirmatively, noting the look of relief that flashed across Cameron's face for a fleeting second.

John climbed into bed and lay back, resting his head on his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. Cameron did not need to scan her John to know the nightmares would come tonight if she did not act to alleviate John's fears. Looking at her precious daughter sitting close prompted Cameron to a quick decision.

"Hailey, since you apologized so nicely, and because I have forgiven you, I have decided to show you my treasures myself," Cameron monotoned.

"Are you sure Mom?" Hailey asked hopefully, wanting to feel a sense that her mother had truly forgiven her more than she wanted to see the contents of the box a second time.

"Yes. Please, would you get my treasures box."

Hailey jumped over her mother and landed agilely on the floor. Just as quickly she jumped back over Cameron, bouncing once on the bed, jarring John and Cameron both. Right behind Hailey followed Sammy who barked once upon landing on the bed between Cameron and John. He gave a play bow and wagged his tail.

Hailey promptly admonished the happy Italian Greyhound. "Sammy, bad Iggy! Lay down or you have to get back under the bed!"

With his ears tucked back and his tail between his legs, a clearly unhappy Sammy slowly lowered himself down onto the bed, ignoring the equally unhappy stare he was receiving from John.

"Hailey, do something…"

"John, no," Cameron interrupted. "Sammy can stay."

Not waiting for John to argue, Cameron opened her box and removed the three jewelry boxes. First, she opened the box containing her wedding ring. Taking it carefully from the box, Cameron handed it to John. She watched as the frown on his face from being chastised about the dog turned into a smile, just as it always did.

Hailey watched in fascination as her father leaned over and gently took Cameron's left hand and slipped the wedding band on her ring finger. Cameron took her unique engagement ring from its box and again gave it to her husband. John slipped it on and Cameron snugged the rings together with her right hand.

Unable to lift her hand up, as was her custom due to the sling on her left arm, Cameron still smiled and turned her hand to catch the light in her purple diamond.

Hailey had seen her parents engage in what she thought was a silly custom that was "yucky" more times than she could count. For the first time, she realized how important their simple act was to them.

"Mom, why don't you wear your rings all the time?"

"I cannot bear the thought of my rings being damaged in combat. Until we live in a safe world, I wear them only on special occasions and in private with your father."

John reached in front of Hailey and to his daughter's surprise, handed Cameron his wedding band. She slipped it on his ringer finger and smiled briefly, her love for her husband obvious.

"Ewww, you two are gross."

Ignoring Hailey, Cameron opened her last jewelry box and removed her earrings. "One day soon you will be old enough to have your ears pierced. Then I might let you borrow these for a date. Maybe," Cameron said, teasing Hailey as she put her earrings on.

"Now, what's next?" Cameron pulled out the three posters from her treasures box and carefully opened the first two.

"These are famous Russian ballerinas. I found these prints in a store in Los Angeles before Judgment Day. I used them to decorate my room. It was the first thing I ever did to claim my room as my own."

Sensing somehow the posters were far more important than she had realized, Hailey tugged on her mother's sleeve.

"Mom, why are these treasures?"

"The posters themselves could easily be replaced, at least before Judgment Day. What makes them treasures is what they symbolize to me. That I finally belonged. I had the dignity of a place of my own. I felt like a person, an individual who should be treated with respect. I had never experienced that before."

"I don't understand," Hailey told her mother, confused as to how a pair of posters could make her mother feel the way they did.

"I had never been allowed to have anything that was my own. To Skynet, my builder, I was merely a tool to be used. To the Resistance, a metal that was not to be trusted. To Sarah and Derek, at best a protector for your father. I was nothing more."

"But you're my mom," Hailey protested.

"Yes," Cameron smiled at her daughter. "I am your mother now. But I was nobody for so long. I did the housework at the house in Los Angeles and I felt my labors earned me the right to belong in the family home, but I didn't know how to make it so. One day Sarah was irritated with me because I did not use the room she provided me with. She told me to paint it or decorate it, that I was to do something with it. So I did. I put these two posters up."

"And it made you feel better?"

"You have no idea Hailey. I realized what a wonderful gift your grandmother had given me, even though she had not realized it. I had a place that was my own. I could have things of my own. Treasures of my own. Did you know these two posters are the reason Sarah signed me up for ballet lessons?"

Hailey looked at the two posters and touched them with a newfound respect.

"These are your dreams aren't they?" she asked.

"Why yes," Cameron replied. "I began to imagine I could one day be a ballerina. I was delighted when Sarah signed me up for classes. At first it was a cover for a mission, but it led too much more. So much more for me and our family."

Hailey fingered the third poster and looked at her mother.

Cameron nodded and Hailey unfolded the poster.

"That's you isn't mom?"

"Yes. That is the advertising poster for the first time I would perform as the prima ballerina for my professional company."

"It is a treasure because it was a dream come true?"

"In more ways than one Hailey. As a ballerina I earned the income that allowed your father and I to marry while he attended college. That treasure is proof I had learned to control my emotions, to express them in a positive way through my dance. Proof a Terminator like me could be creative, could bring beauty to a world so filled with violence and destruction."

"So it's your greatest treasure?"

Cameron smiled at Hailey and then looked at her John before replying. "No, it's not my greatest treasure."

Hailey watched as her mother carefully removed a false bottom from the bottom of the box. Numerous small pieces of cardboard paper fell out along with what looked like three photographs.

"These," Cameron explained, fanning the scraps of paper out like cards, "are the tickets to all of my performances. I have one from each performance. Derek in particular likes to watch me dance and it is for that reason I saved his ticket stubs. You see, Hailey, he has suffered so much in his life, seen so much horror and destruction. For some reason that neither of us can understand, watching me dance fills him with a peace he needs.

My dances were a gift to him. His praise, letting me know what watching me dance did for him, was his gift to me as a dancer."

Cameron turned over two of the photographs. The first depicted Cameron in her wedding dress along with John in his tux, Cameron's friends Marry and Grace in their bridesmaid's dresses. Standing with the group was Derek in a tux and Sarah in her Matron of Honor's dress.

Hailey looked at the photograph and felt a sense of awe. "You are so beautiful mom! Dad is so handsome too!"

"Isn't he," Cameron cooed in agreement. "My John is so handsome," she giggled.

"Keep saying that and I might scratch your back," John teased.

Taking the second photograph, Cameron turned it over. It only depicted the newlyweds, looking into each others eyes as they faced each other holding hands. Again Hailey was moved, realizing her parents loved each other far more than she had ever realized. In fact, it occurred to her, her parents' loving each other was not "yucky" as she liked to think. It was a thing of beauty, something rare in the world her parents lived in.

"And this, this is my greatest treasure," Cameron whispered, turning over the last photograph.

"That's you the day the leadership council granted us the right to adopt you. That's the day I became a mother. The day I gave your father a family of his own. You made us complete that day Hailey. I was finally able to keep my promise to Sarah to make her a grandmother."

Hailey looked at her mother examining the photograph, turning it carefully and scanning all of its details, a long practiced trait of all Terminators when examining an object that interested them.

Hailey watched her mother examining the photo so carefully and realized even now Cameron was torn as she examined the treasure. And Hailey knew why. Seeing her mother in the moment made it okay. For both of them.

"Mom, it's okay."

"What? What's okay Hailey?"

"I know I'm not your greatest treasure," Hailey said smiling at her mother.

Cameron titled her head, puzzled by Hailey's words.

"Dad is your greatest treasure and it's okay with me Mom."

"Hailey, I…"

"Mom, you're a Terminator. Dad's your purpose. You love him more than your all your treasures put together. It's okay. Really. It's not like I don't know a thing or two about how Terminators work you know? I only hang out with Ruth all day everyday and have the Old Man following me everywhere."

"It's okay Hailey?"

"Yes, Mom, it's okay. I love you so much. You cannot help the way you are."

"But, Hailey, a mother should…"

"Mom, you don't know how good it makes me feel to see a picture of me in your treasures box. I know I'm important to you, that you love me. The reasons why don't matter," Hailey said, tears running down her face as she leaned over to hug her mother and kiss Cameron's cheek.

John watched as his two treasures hugged, tears running down both of his angel's cheeks. Cameron had struggled with being a mother and trying to love Hailey as much as a human mother would for so long. Hailey's gift of acceptance of how Cameron was meant so much to him and to his wife. Hailey understood Cameron couldn't help it that John was more important. The fact Hailey was considered a treasure by her mother was enough.

"I'm tired girls," John said, feeling the stress and fatigue of the day hit him suddenly.

"Wait Daddy," Hailey cried, leaping from the bed and hurrying from the room. Cameron removed her earrings and along with her other treasures, put them back in the box. Hailey stormed into the room with Sammy's blanket and the two cardboard tubes.

"What are these Mom?"

"A poster of a famous Russian ballet company."

"Another treasure huh?"

"Yes, another treasure. I thought Ruth might make a frame for it and we could hang it in the living room. Mary and Grace would like to see it and so would Catherine."

"What this one? Another poster of you I bet! How famous were you Mom?"

Cameron laughed. "Not very. But it was nice to find that in the collectibles store. Somebody thought enough of it that it might be collectable."

Hailey carefully placed the two tubes under the bed next to her mother's treasures box before climbing back in bed and snuggling with her mother.

"Whoa! What about Sammy?" John protested.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sammy!" Hailey apologized, sitting up quickly to cover the little dog with his blanket. "Good night Sammy!"

"Good night Daddy!" Hailey said with a smile for her father as she snuggled close to Cameron and pulled the blankets up over her to her chin.

Cameron smiled at John as she made herself comfortable, snuggling close to her daughter.

"Just for tonight John," Cameron whispered, giving John a wink filled with promise.

"But, Sammy," John protested.

"He sleeps where I do," Hailey informed her father.

"Which means he sleeps here tonight," Cameron teased, turning out the light on her side of the bed.

Frustrated, John laid down, pulling the covers up. Within seconds he felt Sammy move further up in the bed, curling up next to him in a tight ball. Knowing resistance was futile, John retrieved the Italian Greyhound's blanket and covered him up again.

A final glance at his wife and daughter warmed his heart. Cameron had already entered Terminator sleep, starting the regeneration process, a faint smile on her lips, as Hailey lay snuggled with her mother. Her eyes closed and breathing regular, indicating she'd fallen asleep quickly like Cameron.

"Well Sammy, looks like it just us guys," John whispered reaching to scratch the family dog's ears. A low growling snore came from under the blanket.

John sighed and looked up at the darkness. It was okay. Everything was okay for that moment in his life.

Reviews are always appreciated. If you liked this story, you might want to consider my other TSCC stories:

 _ **Cameron Grows Up**_

 _ **The Future Cameron**_

 _ **Cameron's Expedition**_

 _ **Cameron versus the Queen**_

 _ **Cameron's Fights: Past and Present – a Collection of Short Stories**_

 _ **Cameron's Revenge**_

 _ **Cameron and the Black Bird**_

 _ **Cameron and John's Wedding**_

 _ **Who's the Boss?**_

 _ **The Storm Before the Calm**_


End file.
